Riddle Me That
by mslucki23
Summary: So, I'm going to guide you through the biggest adventure of my life, which, to this day, I’m still not sure if it was just my own machinations of insanity. Tides turn. Fate Changes. Chance luck. Live destiny. You ready?
1. Minor Chemistry Error? Hardly

**Part 1 : Minor Chemistry Error? Hardly.**

So, I'm going to guide you through the biggest adventure of my life, which, to this day, I'm still not sure if it was just my own machinations of insanity. But anyway, this is the start of the story which is the utter truth, yet if it really happened or not, I will never know. Here we go. You ready?

Its 9:11 am. It's that time when the general shuffle of getting to class on time has just ended, and everyone has pretty much settled down in their seats. Except for today. Today is the day where we present our lab projects which will make up about forty percent of our honours science grade for the quarter. So naturally, everyone is trying to make last minute corrections before they do their final presentation that might make or break them. Sorry, I'm a little melodramatic about these issues. You know me. Oh, yeah, you don't. Okay, well, since I'm writing this you'll be kind of looking into my thoughts and inner revelations (I like that word) from now until this reads "THE END. Back to the point. This is Meghan talking here. So, I'm going to guide you through the biggest adventure of my life. But anyway, this is the start of the story which is the utter truth, yet if it really happened or not, I will never know.

So, here's your chance to meet me. You'd better listen up, well, actually just read-up, because this is important. Yes, me droning on and on about myself IS important! Just listen, I promise you it won't be long. Okay, to start, this story is mostly about one class and that class is honors science. Honors science is taught by this really good British teacher named Mr. Harley. He's been teaching science for a while, and he always does all these demonstrations for us where we blow stuff up. Explosions are probably the best part of that class. Anyways, he gave us this assignment about a month ago where we had to come up with our own experiment and write up an entire lab for it. Now that lab took forever, since we had to do the whole nine yards: procedures, errors, conclusion, hypothesis and on and on and on. Therefore this, therefore that, and so I conclude this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, I am so sick of writing scientific-ally its not even FUNNY! We have to actually demonstrate the lab for the class now, which is half our grade. Though I love presentations, especially oral ones where you get to show off something and talk about it, knowing that this is half of my lab grade really puts on the pressure. I also tend to talk and read very fast - naturally. Not because I'm nervous or anything. But I'm a big talker as you may have realized, okay! So, this lab could have been utter torture, but, luckily, I have a trustworthy partner to do it with.

My partner is my best friend, Jetta. Yes, that is her name, so don't ask me anymore about that. Its old English for something, but I can't remember what at the moment. Kinda weird name, I know. (You better not tell her I said that!) But its really unique, and I'm big on individuality. Not big on individuality like "I'm gonna dress in all black and make a fashion statement for the rest of the year. Well, if you want to do that, I guess is DOES show determination. But I like to have stuff everyone likes , not that they all have, ya know what I mean? I take risks, and don't stay in the safe zone.

So Jetta was someone I met in sixth grade. You could say that I don't have those kind of lifetime best friends that you met in kindergarten and are still friends with today. Because, one, in Miami, houses are spread out and you can't really live right across the street from someone and go over to their house everyday. Two, people come and go from private schools after they get too expensive, or too not-religious enough for their taste. So most of my friends have either left, or become distanced from me over the years. But I don't think that will ever be the case with Jetta. I know that if I talk to her, it will remain confidential and that she won't judge me or make fun of me. She is the only friend I can only trust that won't spread rumors or gossip or anything like that if I tell her something that I don't want anyone to know. And trust me, I know that gossip is hard to resist, so I understand if my other friends can't keep a secret for that long. I don't think that I will ever meet someone like her in my entire life. Now that you have been enlightened on the "bestness" of my best friend. (Sorry, I make up words a lot.) you should know that there is only one problem - she is not a big fan of Pirates of the Caribbean. In fact, she thinks that it is the stupidest movie that she has ever seen in her life. Except the she will watch it only because Orlando Bloom is in it. But, if she gets an overdose of Pirates, than she will NOT be happy. So, I have to be careful about that, because, I for one, am obsessed with Pirates. So that being out of the way, I'm so glad that she is in science with me, so we can be lab partners every time.

This time, we were both a little nervous for this particular presentation, but we knew we had each other. That makes the weight of pressure such a less amount if you know your friend is just as scared as you are.

"Meghan, you got the lab report copies?" That's Jetta right now.

"Yeah, right here" I replied.

"Meghan, Jetta, sit down. We're about to begin," said Mr. Harley in that very official scientific voice of his.

We hastily sat down, anxious to get this over with. A little note here: Mr. Harley picks the names out of hat (well, actually a large beaker) on the order of the presentations. When that first name is picked is always the point of pressure for everyone: because NOBODY wants to go first. If you go first, you don't know what everyone else will be doing or how to start or anything, so you can't learn from the mistakes everyone else did. Bottom Line: Its bad to go first.

"The group that will be presenting first today," Mr. Harley paused for effect, "Meghan and Jetta!"

Well then, I guess we'll just have to go, even after that little lecture I just gave you about the horrors of going first. Oops.

Shakily, I got up from my chair and looked at Jetta for help. She did a little shrug and started walking to the front of the room, where we wheeled our lab cart over to the center so everyone could see. Oh, I forgot to tell you what our lab actually was. We will be reacting Zinc with Hydro-cleric acid, thank you very much. You probably aren't exactly sure what that is, so just know that it makes this popping noise when you put a flame next to it. We were going to show how the combination of those two chemicals (sorry, I don't want to write them out again) causes an output of hydrogen gas. Cool experiment, right?

"I'll get the chemicals, you get the beakers and stuff, okay?" I said to Jetta.

She nodded and went off the glassware racks to get a flask, test tube, stopper, water trough and a variety of other materials that we would need to set up. I, for one, went to the chemical closet to select the compounds and elements that we would need. Hydro-cleric acid was easy to find. I chose one with a strength of one molar, since six is a little strong and dangerous. But, then when I went to the metal cabinet, I couldn't find zinc anywhere. If they're out of zinc, I am seriously going to kill someone. So I'm looking around and found all sorts of other metals, but no zinc. I think I'll ask Mr. Harley for help. No, he might take off our preparedness grade for not knowing where the chemicals are, so I'll just use that as a last resort. Anyway, I still can't find it! So I put my head way in the back of the cabinet, you know, just in case someone shoved it back there by accident and saw a strange bottle. Is that a cork stopper on the top? So I reached in carefully and took it out and marveled at it for a minute. It was one of those round bottles with a cork at the top, and a short neck. Looked kind of like Captain Jack Sparrow's rum bottles. Reminds me of my favorite movie, _Pirates of the Caribbean_ and my favorite character, the captain himself of course! Well, that's what that bottled looked like: right out of the movie itself. Then, realizing how stupid I had been, I looked in the bottom and saw a black powder, finally - Zinc! So I walked out of the chemical closet with the Hydrochloric acid in one hand and the zinc in that strange little bottle in the other, and met Jetta at the center of the room.

"What took so long?" she whispered to me urgently.

"Nothing. Just couldn't find the zinc," I muttered, hoping that Mr. Harley wasn't in earshot.

"Okay girls, carry on," said Mr. Harley with a forward motion of his hand. "That's a strange little bottle you've got there. What's in there?"

"Zinc," I said nervously, hoping that it was the right one.

"Okay, well if you insist on doing that for effect, as long as it's the right chemical."

"Sure," I said, sounding more confident than I actually was about this endeavor.

Just then, a peculiar type music filled the room. The waltz. That's what it was. Everyone looked around and Mr. Harley picked up his cell phone. I should have known. He's the only one who would actually set classical music as their ring tone. Come on, don't you want Temperature or Money Maker. or something? Dorks.

"Will you excuse me for a second," said Mr. Harley, flipping up his phone and leaving the classroom.

As soon as that door clicked shut, the usual buzz of talking filled the room. I forgot to describe our class. We have a lot of really smart people, it's just that our grade as a whole tends to be very talkative. So, every time a teacher stops talking or changes gears, everyone will immediately find SOMETHING to have a conversation about. Yes, I confess, I do it too. But if we should take notes with a blue pen or a black one is an urgent subject, okay!?! Speaking of the people in our class, there is this one girl named Jordana who has got to be the biggest smart air-head I have ever seen. She's in honors, but she's one of those people who thinks that they are some much more popular than they actually are, and talks to people who aren't there real friends like they think that they are doing you a favor by talking to you because it is so much of a "privilege" to talk to them. Yeah right. Speaking of Jordana, here she comes now.

"Hey, Meghan, what's your experiment about?"

Like you're actually interested, I thought. But I told her anyway, "We're doing a chemical reaction to produce hydrogen."

"You know that you're using the wrong acid, right?"

"Hydro-cleric acid is the one we've been using in all the practice tests," said Jetta, checking the bottle.

"Yeah, but you're supposed to use six molars, not one," replied Jordana in that, "you're lucky I'm talking to you" kind of way.

"Actually, six molars is a little bit strong for this experiment. We want to stay on the safe side and use only one molar, just because six might cause a bigger explosion than we want," I said, trying to keep my tone in just a "normal conversation" and non-know-it-all type way. Some people say that I have a talent for hiding my hate and keeping patient with people even in the most difficult situations. Some people also say that I am very opinionated and that I know what I want. It was hard to keep those two talents separate in this scenario, but I think that I managed to use the latter.

"Oh," she said. Quickly changing the subject, she snatched my lab report from the table and paged through it.

"Mr. Harley said that you were only supposed to do three to five pages."

Oh, I forgot to tell you. Our lab report came to be about thirteen pages with all the images, diagrams, data and writing that we did. We just wanted to do a good job and that;s how it came out, so we kept it that way, in case you were wondering. We also had to do a powerpoint, so I had my laptop up there with me.

"Well, we had a lot to say," added Jetta quickly. I was shell-shocked by that time by Jordana's utter fakeness, and was grateful that Jetta saved me, even though I could think of a lot of less-than-appropriate things to say Jordana.

"Yeah, and I don't think that any teacher would actually take OFF for any extra effort, as long as the extra pages aren't just dribble," I added confidently. There's that keeping two personalities in check thing again.

"What are you, trying to put ours down because you know that your lab report doesn't even come close?" Okay, I didn't really say that. I'm not that mean When I say really testy stuff like that, just assume that I am just thinking it unless noted otherwise. I tend to think really mean stuff, but only the nice stuff comes out of my mouth. Sometimes I wish I could say something a little more assertive though.

Saved by the bell, well actually, Mr. Harley. He came back in at that moment, and Jordana quick took her seat. Apparently she felt it was urgent to put on some more of her Burt's Beeswax lip gloss.

"Sorry about that minor interruption," apologized Mr. Harley. "Please begin."

So, carefully, I took out the cork from the bottle and poured some zinc into the flask for the demonstration. It was a little crumbly and smelled kind of weird though. i can't describe the smell really, strong and pungent are the best words I can think of. Kinda smokey, that's all I could say. I didn't really think anything of it though, there was my grade to worry about.

"We're going to show you how Zinc..."

"And Hydrocleric acid..." Jetta chimed in, pouring a measurement of the acid into the flask.

"React to produce hydrogen gas," I said with a flourish.

For a moment, nothing happened in the flask with the zinc and acid. Everyone was staring at us with this very strange, blank, puzzled sort of look, like we didn't do something right. I turned briefly to look back at the chemicals, and everything was correct. Then, all of a sudden, there was the huge, loud, resounding BOOM! It blew me and Jetta backward with a massive force, as we crashed over the desks close to the experiment cart. Other kids screamed and ducked as the firey explosion swept over the entire room. The last thing I saw was Jetta's face and tendrils of fire reaching across the labs, with sparks flying over my head. 

_To be continued..._


	2. Reality Check

**Part 2 : Reality Check!**

A sharp rocking sensation woke me out of my daze. Apparently, it had woken both me and Jetta out of our daze(s).

"Jetta?" I said, "What did you do to your eyeliner. You look like a goth." That was the first, and very irrelevant thing that I said to her before I realized where we were.

"Well, I wouldn't be talking," she said matter-of-factly. That girl always has something to say. She had all this black stuff around her eyes, put on really dark, mind that. Some fashion statement, really. But anyways, apparently I had it too. I reached my hand up to my eyelid and rubbed it there, then looked at my index finger. The tip was black with something that looked a little like pencil lead. Never mind that, I felt some strange weight on the top of my head. Reaching up, I pulled it off. A three corner hat?!?

"What the..." I looked at Jetta and noticed that she had on some very strange other get-up: a brown waistcoat, pants and a white shirt under another brown shirt like thing.

"Is today Halloween or something?" I said, hoping to get an answer that would explain this.

"I thought you might know," said Jetta.

"This is sort of a strange outfit," I commented. Okay, strange was an understatement. "Did we decide to wear this today to school last night or something?"

"Don't look at me!" said Jetta, defensively. "You would be the one wanting to dress like a pirate, not me!"

"Wait a second, what? Pirate? You're right. That's it! We're dressed like pirates. This must be a dream! Yeah!" Now, I know. That is a stupid explanation. I am fully aware of that fact. But, if you woke up dressed like a pirate, not knowing where you are, what would you say happened? Plus, I am such a big fan of Pirates of the Caribbean that I have frequent dreams of being a pirate myself, so its not uncommon for me. But Jetta didn't believe me too much about that.

"A dream, Meghan? Yes I'm sure of that," she replied sarcastically.

"Can't you see? Big fan of pirates plus wake up in pirates clothes equals pirate dream!"

"Yeah, that part makes sense," said Jetta, rolling her eyes at me. "Except that this seems a little too, well, real to be a dream. You know, you don't really have this much thought or perception or stuff in dreams."

"I guess..." I said, deftly pinching her in the arm.

"OW! What was that for?!?"

"You shouldn't be in this dream anymore since that pinch woke you up!"

"Well, what if this is your dream, then you can still be thinking about me and I don't have to be dreaming the same thing. You whole dream theory is totally off."

"No, because you even said that this is a lot of thinking that we are having in this dream, so we must be dreaming simultaneously."

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. What do we have? Twin telepathy?"

That's another thing about the Meghan and Jetta camaraderie that I forgot to mention: we fight a lot about stupid stuff.

"No, but if I'm talking to you, and you're talking to me, and if we're even having such an animated, stupid fight, then we've got to be thinking about the same thing!"

"Well, think me out of it! This is getting pretty scary that we haven't woken up yet. Anyway, if this is YOUR dream about Pirates of the Caribbean than where's your beloved Jack Sparrow? Huh?"

"Maybe if you would stop dreaming Will Turner than he would actually be here right now!"

"Meghan."

"Jetta."

Fed up with the current situation, I stood up quickly deciding that this little debate was hopeless and feeling a weight on my shoulder. Probably my messenger bag. But I looked down to realize none of the contents at the end of the strap of my "bag" were in sight. Instead, there was...a sword?!? I drew it and it made that swift whispering sound when it clear the holster. Being the less serious of the camaraderie of Jetta and Meghan, I waved it around.

"Look, I'm Captain Jack Sparrow!" I said to Jetta as a slashed eagerly at the air. That thing was heavier than I thought and I found it falling rather lopsided around in my hand.

"Careful! You're gonna chop my head of!" said Jetta, smiling and drawing hers, forgetting about our last little dispute.

Suddenly, a powerful rocking motion tipped us both over and we found ourselves on the floor once again, swords splayed to the side.

"Ouch," said Jetta, "What was that?"

"Do I look like I know?"

Upon saying that, I carefully replaced that sword back in its holster because if we fell again we might find ourselves self-skewered. That would not be a pretty sight.

"According to you, if we're in a dream, then where ARE we anyway?"

It was the first time that the two of us had actually taken a good look at our surroundings. We were in a dank, dark room, lit by little lanterns hanging around on hooks and beams. The floor felt wet and the air was heavy and sticky. I turned around to get a 360 degree panorama of this place and found that the entirety of the walls was lined like a wine cellar. Not too fully stocked, I must say. Bottles housed in the shelves were few and far between. Smelled weird too, like the inside of a rum barrel.

"Have you noticed that this looks peculiarly like the rum storage on the Black Pearl?" I said shakily.

"I've tried not too," said Jetta, not a big fan of pirates.

"Oh my God! Do you think we're REALLY onboard the Black Pearl?" I asked excitedly. "Because if we are this is the best dream ever!"

I think I heard Jetta mutter something like, "or the worst" but I chose to ignore that claim, because trying to get Jetta to like Pirates was just like trying to get Jack's compass to point north: so not happening.

The ship creaked again and we were thrown against the wall, then propelled forward again. I tried to hold onto the shelves until the boat steadied, but then resorted to just sitting down where there was nowhere else to fall.

Suddenly, we heard a voice, coming from what looked like a stairway in the darkness. Someone was coming down the stairs, into the bilges! Frozen with fear, we could only stare at a strange, portly figure making his way down into the cellars, humming the familiar tone of "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me!" He thrust his bottle of rum into the air and drank thirstily, then stopped mid-gulp. "Mary mother of god!" he exclaimed.

I did a little, nervous wave, now realizing that he had noticed us. "Stowaways! Aboard the Black Pearl?"

"Well, actually, not really, I mean, we never, we never really chose to stay on this ship," I stuttered, trying to think of an explanation.

"What she's actually trying to say is that she got us into this mess," said Jetta, giving me the look.

The strange me leaned forward into the lamplight to get a closer look. It was GIbbs!

"Mr. Gibbs? What are you doing in my dream?"

"Best come with me to see the Cap'n, little ladies," said Gibbs.

The captain? That couldn't possibly be...no, no, it couldn't be. Then dreams would REALLY COME TRUE!! But anyway, come on. That is too good to be true. Who am I kidding? Deciding it was best to follow him out of the hull, I grabbed Jetta and pulled along with me. We walked up the creaking stairs that led to another level of the ship where there were several swinging hammocks and rocking rum bottles, probably recently vacated. Carefully, picked our way about the swinging hammocks and to another set of stairs.

"Is this a dream?" Jetta seemed like she wanted a third opinion.

"Nye it isn't. If it wasn't for this blasted rum I'd be able ta tell ye for shure, but no, I don't believe it is," replied Gibbs, halting at the foot of the stairs.

"Ha! I told you so!" said Jetta to me. "Now, Mr. Gibbs."

"Aye?"

"Where are we, exactly?"

"Where did ye think ye are? Ur aboard the Black Pearl!"

"Got any explanations for this one?" Jetta muttered to me.

"Well, if we're not in a dream about Pirates, then maybe we're on the set! We could be extras you know, but I don't honestly know how we coulda managed that."

Not being able to think of a better explanation, I guess, Jetta took mine for an answer and continued to follow Gibbs.

The last set of stairs came to an abrupt halt and we peeked our heads into the open air. I couldn't believe the site, an actual ship! Crew members swabbed the deck, pulled ropes and shouted orders. The whole deck was a frenzy of drinking mixed with crewing the Pearl. As soon as we stepped onto the main deck, everyone seemed to stop what they were doing and stare.

"Back to work, the lot 'a ya!" shouted Gibbs, but no one listened. I had this odd feeling they were staring at us. And just for the record, that is not a good feeling. Gibbs led us over to a figure with a long waistcoat and black dreadlocks. He had taken on a strange stance and swagger with his back turned to us, looking out at the sea.

"Cap'n."

He swung around in response to Gibbs, flailing a heavily jeweled hand to one side and regarding us with a quirked eyebrow. It took me two seconds of staring, and then I realized who he was. "You, you're Captain Jack Sparrow!"

_To be continued..._


	3. Blame it on the Rum

**Part 3 : Blame it on the Rum**

"Actually, I was supposed to say that, but, yes, that's who I am. Now, it appears as if you were stowing away on me ship?"

"That's really funny, how we're on the set, but everyone is acting so real. Did you do this just for us?"

"Whatarya tryin to say?" said Gibbs, looking very confused.

"That we're on the set of Pirates of the Caribbean and we really appreciate you trying to make it just like the movie. This is really nice."

Everyone, including Jetta, was looking at me very confusidly. (I don't think that's a word, by the way.)

"Well, we be pirates, and ye are in the Caribbean, but what's all this talk about "movies" and "sets"?" said Gibbs. Jack was taking all this in with a rather puzzled look on his face, but he didn't say anything just yet. Gibbs was doing all the talking for the most part. But, anyway, I tried to get through to them, though they all insisted on being stubborn actors and actresses.

"This is just like that thing on the Boston trip where you talk to those people and they act the time period," I said to Jetta. Everyone looked a me like I was missing some big part of the picture. Saved by the bell, The awkward silence was then interrupted by a dwarvish pirate running up to Captain Jack.

"Here's that inventory on gunpowder ya wanted, Cap'n," he said, holding up a piece of tattered cloth with some scribbles on it that I guess where supposed to be numbers. There were two words with some tallies next to them: "rum" and "gunpowder". May I note that the rum column seemed to hold considerably more tallies than the gunpowder.

"Seems we're a bit short in the gunpowder area," said Jack to Marty, the short pirate, while holding that cloth at arms length. "Tell Ana-Maria to steer to Tortuga. Might a bit more, aye?"

"Yessir."

The little pirate hurried off to the helm, while Jack continued to stare at us as if we came from another planet. I looked around for some sign of cameras or something that they were filming the movie, but could find none. I was starting to get a bad feeling about this.

"So, have you come to join the crew of the most fearsome pirates in the Caribbean?" Jack said. He was directing the question at us.

"No, do you think WE actually know anything about ships?" I said.

"Well, then. If ye haven't come to join me crew, then we'll just have the pleasure of dropping ye off in Tortuga, savvy?"

"Alright, jokes over," Jetta cut in. "Now, I know you're not a REAL pirate, and I can prove it!"

"Jetta, maybe you shouldn't" I cut in.

"Meghan, what are we supposed to do? Stay here like we're actually on a pirate ship?"

"Yeah!"

"You're insane."

Anyway, I wasn't sure exactly what she was going to do to prove that we weren't actually on the Black Pearl, but insulting pirates isn't such a good idea.

"Now, everyone knows that that hair is just a wig ," said Jetta. Apparently, not everyone. Because most of the crew was looking at us like we had just made a very dire insult. But before I could do anything, she walked up, took hold of a bunch of Captain Jack's dreadlocks and yanked it as hard as she could.

"I don't think I deserved that!" said Jack angrily, reaching for his pistol. Jetta stepped back in fear, because, apparently she was getting the same impression as I was. But, to my great relief, he didn't shoot her. He reached up and shot at something far up in the crow's nest. It gave a yelp, and tumbled down at his feet. I jumped back like three feet because on this very deck was Barbossa's cursed monkey, Jack! While all these shenanigans were going on, I hadn't realized that the sun had almost set, and that the moon was rising into the sky. Within seconds, the last of the sun's brilliant rays had disappeared behind the calm horizon, and the moon's light shown on the deck. What happened next definitely proved that this was no dream or movie set. The screeching monkey mutated into a skeleton, part flesh, fur and bones, right in front of our eyes! Now, everyone knows that this monkey was entirely made by a computer, so there was no way that it could possibly have donned its skeletal persona without the help of a lot of computer screens and modeling. It certainly wouldn't have looked like this on the set. I guess Jack (the captain, not the monkey) saw our surprised and very horrified looks.

"Just needed to get some anger out on that little rat," he said, as if trying to explain himself.

"How? What? What just happened?" I found Jetta stuttering out the words.

"Welcome aboard the Black Pearl."

"Let me just talk to my friend here for a moment," I said to Jack and pulled Jetta back into the corner where there was a spacious room, probably the captain's quarters.

I hated to break it to her, but I tried to tell Jetta all the same, "I think we have just time-traveled," I said to her with a sigh, waiting for the bomb to fall. And it did.

"What!?! That's impossible! No one can go back in time. Jack Sparrow's not even a real person!"

"Well, his hair's real enough" I said smugly, remembering the recent events. That might have just won me this battle.

"So, let's recap this for a moment. You're saying that we went back in time, to the time of a movie and to people that aren't even real, and now we're going to be dropped off somewhere that isn't even a real place!?"

"That just about sum's it up, yeah."

"Impossible."

"Do you have a better explanation!?"

"No."

"So there!"

"Okay, you won. So, for a second lets just assume that we did go back in time to a time that isn't even really in history. Then we didn't just go "poof!" and it happens. There must be something that we did in the future before we got here."

And that's Jetta for you. Always trying to think of something logical. But its hard to think of a logical explanation if you have just landed yourself in a theory that sounds totally illogical down to the last detail.

"What did we do the last time we were in 2006?" said Jetta.

"Nothing. We went to science and did our lab, but we never finished because there was this giant explosion in the lab and..."

Jetta rudely cut me off with a, "Yeah, there was that explosion. And then we ended up here!"

"But an explosion of Zinc and Hydro-cleric acid does not equal time-travel." I said. See, I can be logical too you know!

"But that zinc did smell kinda funny," I said, reminiscing on a fact that I didn't really think had any relevance. I hoped that I wouldn't get a painful reminder of that from Jetta.

"Are you SURE that what you put in there was Zinc?"

"NO, it was a magical fairytale potion that explodes the whole lab into a million pieces!" I said sarcastically.

"Sure it wasn't some sort of explosive?"

"Like what, gunpowder?" Sure. Who keeps gunpowder in a science lab?"

"Gunpowder!" Jetta said. I gave her a weird look for effect. I do that a lot.

"That fits perfectly. Gunpowder is black like zinc, it's obviously in powder form, like the zinc in the lab, and Jack's running short on it."

"So you're saying that we blasted back several hundred years because of a magically teleported bottle of gunpowder?" Now it was my turn to be skeptical.

"Do you have a better explanation," she said, imitating me. I hate when she does that.

"Now you're thinking like me," I said in response. "So, we agree that we traveled back to the era of Jack Sparrow and now we don't know what to do? Do we have an accord?" That's another thing about me. I put in Pirates lines in my speech just to annoy Jetta.

"If you would stop talking like Jack we would."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Have you two stopped all your talk about labs and time travel and such?" said Gibbs. Apparently these pirates were big eavesdroppers.

Ignoring him, I walked straight up to Jack, who seemed to be enjoying a bottle of rum. He stopped drinking, after a considerable time of me standing there. He cocked an eyebrow at me again. "It seems we woke up here and we don't know where we are," I told him.

"Ah, I know the feeling," he said, looking lovingly at his bottle of rum. How typical.

"Now, I really can't have you aboard me ship if you ain't a sailor. Tortuga's a nice place though, lotsa rum."

"We're NOT going to be dropped off at Tortuga!" I said angrily. "We're staying here."

"I see no profit in it for me."

You know how Elizabeth says the Jack would discover something: "that he was a good man." Well, I guess he hadn't discovered that quite yet. Because he was being impossible. Luckily, any true Pirates fan knows exactly how to talk to Captain Jack Sparrow.

"Profit?" I said, quickly drawing my sword. Drawing a sword is so cool. Remind me to take this sword we ever get back to 2006, okay?

"Of all your stupid ideas, Meghan, I think this is the worst. He's a pirate and you've never used a sword in your life. What, are you kidding me?" Jetta criticized.

"Any better ideas?" I muttered back to her.

"It might be too late for that." Is that comment supposed to be honest or cynical? But, before I could think of anything else, Jack cut in.

"Do you think this wise, lass?" he started.

"Crossing blades with a pirate?" I finished for him. Then I did that cool little thing where you make a sort of soft screeching noise while scratching your blade against your opponents. Remember that from the movie? Well, I've always wanted to do that.

Jack took a strike at my blade, but I blocked it. Any true Pirates of the Caribbean fan knows the swordplay choreography inside and out. I was a true Pirates fan, and Jack was totally predictable. He whirled around in a 360 and I quick turned to thrust up my sword and block the blow. Even though I knew the choreography, it's much easier to memorize than to do, I tell you. I hoped I wasn't making that too obvious to him or the rest of the crew, who watched with intent interest as their esteemed captain parried with a fourteen-year-old.

"So, how's my footwork?" I said, trying to keep him entertained as well as predictable.

"Just like dear William's, oddly," he said casually. I quick perceived that he was doing a cross step to the left, and I swung my arm around behind my head to block his next blow. (You can see that little move in the fight between Will and Jack in the blacksmith's shop. Just a little FYI there.)

Then, I blocked three more with some quick clangs. But I quickly noticed that my extent of knowledge was only as far as the movie's choreography went. I didn't know the extent of Jack's knowledge and I had to find a way out of this without looking like a coward and at the same time beating Jack. That is a dilemma right there. Suddenly, I hatched an idea. Will had thrown his sword at Jack as he was running out and then lost his weapon. If I could do the same, just get Jack to do that little sword hurling trick (which he had hopefully picked up from Will) I might have a chance. That is, if I didn't get stabbed in the back before. There was a risk, but I had to take it. Jack lunged at me with his sword, and I jumped in the air, allowing the sword to slice smoothly at the air beneath me feet. Upon landing back on the ground, I took off running with my back to him toward the main mast. He did just as I thought: threw his sword with mock gusto. It hurtled toward me and I knew I had less than a second to spare. I grabbed some of the rope that led up to the crow's nest and swung myself up. The sword whistled smoothly through the air, then came into contact with the ropes beneath my feet. Slicing through them cleanly, it cut the roping free of its anchors on the deck, then continued its arc over the deck and coasted smoothly across the ledge on the other side of the ship. Sword overboard! Within seconds, everyone listened in wonder as Jack's sword cannon-balled into the ocean and landed with a THWACK! and a SPLASH into the sea. That was if for Jack's sword. In seconds, it had sunk far below the surface.

I swung around the mast, still on the freely swinging roping and landed with a confident flourish. "By your leave Captain Sparrow."

_To be continued..._


	4. Argh

**Part 4 : Argh.**

"Oh my God! You just beat Jack Sparrow in a sword fight!" said Jetta, running up to congratulate me.

"I know!" I squealed. People say that I get very squeaky and or loud when I'm excited. So if this hurts your ears, sorry. I clapped my hands very rapidly and pranced around that deck. Now, the pirates were staring at this little victory dance kinda strangely, so I quick looked at them and did a big bow for my achievement. No one clapped; they just stared in awe. Argh. Bloody pirates!

Only then did I notice Captain Jack Sparrow, who had a sorta pouty look on his face. Then I remembered that that sword was one of his cherished "effects." He was probably sad about losing it. But I had not choice in the matter. "So, Jack Sparrow, what do you say?"

"Captain. I confess. You beat me. But what'r you gonna do on me ship?"

Pirates needed to be negotiated with. And fast. They weren't very patient people. Luckily, I was saved from the immediate thought by the bell once more. I was certainly getting lucky today. And that bell was...

_Who you know fresher than Hov'? Riddle me that?_

_The rest of y'all know where I'm lyrically at_

_Can't none of y'all mirror me back_

_Yeah hearin me rap is like hearin G Rap in his prime_

_I'm young HO rap's Grateful Dead_

_Back to take over the globe, now break bread_

_I'm in Boeing jets, Global Express_

_Out on the country but the blueberry still connect_

_On the low but the yacht got a triple deck_

Everyone stared at me at that moment, including Jetta. "It's coming from the audience!" I exclaimed. Because numb was my ring tone! These pirate clothes have a lot of pockets, but, luckily for me, my cell phone was in the front pocket on the side of my coat. I quick took it out and flipped it open. The caller id read "Liz."

"Hey, Liz. What's up?" I said. All the pirates were really staring at me now, but I tried not to show that I was nervous.

"Where ARE you Meghan? I've been looking all over for you at lunch. You in the library or something? We had this fire drill because of some explosion in the lab. Was that your class? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Jetta's here with me."

"Well, where are you? I'm not eating lunch alone." Lunch? It was night here. Ouch. This time travel thing must have some sort of a time difference. This spelled trouble, as you can see. Because I couldn't just say, "We're in the sixteenth century on the Black Pearl with Captain Jack Sparrow. No, that would not work. But, then I had an idea. If my cell phone had come back with me, then what else might have come back as well?

"Meghan, are you still there?"

"Yeah, um, listen: do you know if all the laptops were okay in the explosion?"

"Some got burned, but most are fine. Yours was the only one they couldn't find anywhere. White Macbook, right?"

"I have it with me, I think. Do you have your laptop with you?"

"Yeah, one second. Lemme boot it up."

Phone in hand, I hurried back down to the bilges. If my laptop wasn't in 2006, then it must be here in the 1600's. I hoped it didn't get lost in time travel, because it's new and then I would seriously kill someone. I looked around the dark bilges where we had been and grabbed a lantern off the wall. Holding it out, I saw the white glint of my Macbook safe in a corner. Thank god! I felt like hugging that thing. I hurried back up to the surface in about two seconds flat brandishing my laptop in my hand. "Touche!" I said to Jetta. All the pirates were still awestruck by this puzzling series of circumstances. "Still on the phone with Liz - hello!" I realized as she shouted at me through my phone.

"Okay, okay! Still here!" I shouted back. "You've got a webcam, right?"

"Yeah."

I pushed a pirate off a nearby barrel and sat myself down there, then flipped open my laptop. I opened up the internet and prayed that it would work. Connect to Linksy's? the computer prompted. Yes! There's still an available wireless network! This computer must hold some sort of connection with things in the future still. Knowing that the internet might go out at any moment, I opened up skype and positioned my computer so the camera at the top had a view of the pirate ship.

"I'm webcasting to you right now," I told Liz, and I quick put my hand over the camera lens. She might not be ready for this just yet.

"Liz, is it working?" I asked urgently.

"Yeah. Here we go. Meghan, is something wrong?"

"There's a lot wrong," Jetta muttered.

"Is that Jetta?"

"Bring a lantern over here!" I said to one of the silent, gaping pirates. Hastily, he got it and handed it to me. I put my phone between my head and my shoulder and grabbed the lantern, still keeping my hand over the camera.

"Meghan, who are you talking to? My screen is black. Do you have your hand over it or something?"

"Listen, Liz. You might not believe this, but you have to, okay? You're right. There is something very wrong. You ready?"

"Sure, whatever," said Liz, seeming very unsure by my strange behavior. I saw Liz's face flicker up on the screen and pulled my hand away. Then, I turned back to see Jack peering at the screen over my shoulder.

"Oh my GOD!" I heard Liz's exclamation from the screen. Jack jumped back a bit at that one.

"Is that really Johnny Depp!?!" Liz sounded excited.

"Yeah, no, kind of," I tried to explain.

"You've GOT to get me an autograph!"

"No, Liz, you don't understand."

"Where are you, anyway?"

"In the Caribbean!" shouted Jetta, very agitated at this whole set of circumstances.

"Look, we really don't know where we are," I cut in. "You have to believe us! We think we traveled back in time and now we're with pirates and you're our only link to the future." Then I realized that that sounded very dumb.

"Meghan, I know you're obsessed with pirates, but it's not even April Fool's Day yet...or Halloween."

"Look, you can talk to him yourself."

With that, I picked up my computer, pulled Jack down and sat him on the barrel and set the laptop in his lap.

"You drop that laptop or spill any rum in it, you'll be paying me the equivalent of 2000 dollars in doubloons!" I warned him. He just stared quizzically at the screen. "Come on!" I said. "You always have something to say, just tell her why we're on this ship," I told Jack.

"Well, you see, through an unfortunate and utterly unforeseeable series of circumstances that had nothing at all to do with me, your friends here have appeared on me ship and this one here robbed me of me precious sword," said Jack, rather solemnly.

"Please, Liz, we don't know what to do. We're really stuck here. She believed me at that point, because I am not able to keep a straight face through half of a prank, so this would either be setting a world record for me, or I wasn't kidding. I wasn't kidding, as you well know and now she well knows.

"You're not kidding me, are you?" said Liz with a large degree of uncertainty.

"No, I'm really not. "

"Can you still get me an autograph from Jack Sparrow?"

"Captain to you!" Jack cut in.

"I don't even know if he knows how to write," I said.

"Do too!" said Jack indignantly.

"Okay, he does. We'll try to find some kind of cloth around here then we can get for your autograph, okay? But for now, you need to help us."

"HOW? Its not like I can just run up to the principle and say 'my friends have time-traveled and are now in Pirates of the Caribbean and they need our help'!"

"No, you're right. I need to conserve the battery on my computer so that we can contact you, alright?"

"I'll try to find whatever I can about new Pirates scripts and stuff to see what you guys might be up against, but there's nothing else I can really do. I mean, the movie comes out tomorrow. You're probably stuck in some sort of uncreated backstory."

"I know. Just try to find out something, or else it might end up that we never existed."

"Got it. Be careful, okay? Try to stay where you are until we get some more information."

"I gotta go now. Call me as soon as you find something, but hurry. We don't have much time left in this story that we're in before something dangerous happens."

"I'm trying."

"Okay, bye."

I shut down my laptop and clicked the screen back into place since Jack did not know how to do that. Then, we turned around only to see that every pirate was brandishing a sword or cutlass and all other relentless pieces of metal. This was not good. "She's an enchantress!" said Gibbs. "Bad luck to have them aboard."

"Put away your weapons, sons," said Jack rather casually.

"Gibbs, fortunately I know how to counter bad luck. Now, these enchantresses with their strange instruments (I silently scoffed at that, hah, 'strange instruments.') might be of some value to us."

Hearing that, the pirates all decided that it was in their best interest to put their weapons down, and I did a (hopefully) silent sigh of relief. I also got an idea. If these pirates believed so strongly in enchantment, then maybe we could use that to our advantage. We wouldn't be dropped off at Tortuga so quickly if they realized what we might be able to do for them. And, as far as I know, we were the only ones with a computer in this world, led alone who knew how to use it, so that could prove valuable to us as well. We just had to play the part.

"Yes, Gibbs speaks the truth. Enchantresses we are!" It was harder than I thought to make this up on the spot. "You," I said pointing to Jack, "You have a touch of... dest-in-y about you, Captain. Jack. Sparrow" Yes, this was working brilliantly. I looked at Jetta and she quick caught on to my idea. Waving her hands about, she began to do a weird meditating like act. These pirates were so gullible, they all looked at us like we were Bruce Almighty. So we put on this who performance for them, until Jack said, "You two! Let's go to my captain's quarters to do some negotiating. Maybe then we can come to some sort of accord?" We nodded yes, so Jack led us off into the captain's quarters and we sat around a knobby wooden table lit by like a million candles. There were maps spread out on it, and more than enough bottles of rum.

"So, how is it again that you two came upon me ship?"

I looked at Jetta, and she looked me back in the eyes as if to say, "You're the big pirates fan here, talk to him!"

"We can travel from the future."

"Ah, so you made it to me ship from some other time,"

"Yeah,"

"Your names?"

"I'm Meghan, and this is Jetta."

He seemed to contemplate our names deeply for a moment.

"Not Turner!" I said quickly, just to make sure.

"No worries, mates. We've been through that already."

"So, you've got the Pearl and from then to now you've left Will with his bonnie lass?" (Using pirate's lingo is so fun!)

"The lovely Elizabeth."

"Yeah, so...why'd you bring us here?" He started to say something, but was interrupted by a beeping noise from my phone.

"Hold that thought. Text message," I said, taking out my phone. Jack looked at it intently and watched as I flipped it open. Then, I realized I had made a mistake, because the wallpaper on my cellphone was a picture of the pirate himself.

"Oh," I said when I saw that he was staring at it.

"Why am I on that...thing?" he said, pointing in his usual, half-drunk way at my LCD screen. Jetta gave me a look. Kind of like the "Over-obsession is a bad idea," look.

"You're a diamond mate, a legend" I said, trying to get myself out of this current predicament. Wait! I could get the best wallpaper for my phone of Jack because he was standing right here! I quick clicked to the camera feature of my phone. "Jack, stay right there! DON'T MOVE." He looked a little frightened, like I was going to incinerate him with my phone or something. I turned the revolving camera lens (That's one of the crowning features of my phone, by the way) in his direction. Then, I clicked "capture" and there it was, a perfect picture for my wallpaper. "You survived," I told him, holding up my phone so he could see the picture. He was still blinking a little bit, probably from the light of the flash. Okay, back to the text message.

"Jetta, its from Liz!"

"Elizabeth! Does it say anything about me!?" said Jack.

"Not that Elizabeth," said Jetta. Jack looked a little disappointed at that news.

"cant fnd nything yet. g2g," it read. "She must have written this during class," I said. "But it doesn't help us much."

"So, what do we do?" said Jetta. Why does everyone always have to look at me for advice?

"What about have some rum?" Jack suggested. He held out another bottle to Jetta. She rolled her eyes and stared him down, so he turned his hand to offer it to me. I took it. unsure of what would happen next. I took off the cork with a hollow "POP!" and looked inside at its contents. Kinda weird, murky liquid inside. Jack was looking at me, expecting me to chug it down. If I was gonna play the part of a pirate-enchantress, this came with the package. So, I slowly took a short swig like Jack, only I couldn't keep that vile liquid in my mouth for more than one second. It was disgusting! I spat it out behind me and grimaced. I turned back around only to have Jack snatch the bottle from my fingers.

"You don't burn rum, do you?" he said, hugging the bottle close to him.

"Course not. This just isn't my favorite kind," I said, trying to sound convincing. He seemed to take that for a valid answer and opened his mouth to discuss some more pirate issues with us, when Ana-Maria walked in.

"u'r s'pposed to knock!" said Jack.

"Still standing the orders to port at Tortuga?" she said, ignoring him.

"Nye. We've come upon a change of plans. Sail to port Royal."

_To be continued..._


End file.
